#good book press

[uwmspeccoll]

Cupid's Calling

Valentine's Day is like a sprinkle of magic in the heart of winter! It's a day when hearts race a bit faster, and smiles shine a bit brighter. Celebrated on February 14th, it is a day dedicated to expressing love and affection toward partners, friends, and family. The holiday’s origins come from ancient Roman and Christian traditions. Various legends link it to Saint Valentine, a Roman priest who was martyred for conducting weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry.

In various cultures around the world, Valentine's Day is celebrated in distinct ways, each featuring unique customs and traditions. It’s a popular occasion for proposals and weddings, making it a significant date for many couples. Alongside traditional symbols like hearts and Cupid, Valentine’s Day has evolved into a commercial event, with businesses promoting a wide array of gifts and experiences designed for couples and loved ones. Nevertheless, the core idea remains unchanged: a celebration of love in its many forms! ❤️

To commemorate this love-filled occasion, the images featured come from:

I Love You! by Peter and Donna Thomas, a sweet miniature book published in Santa Cruz by Good Book Press in 1985 (Peter originally made his book for Donna on Valentine's Day).

Love Poems: A Garland, a collection of love poetry gathered and published in 1946 by the Peter Pauper Press in Mount Vernon, New York.

-View previous Valentine’s Day posts

-View more posts with works by Peter and Donna Thomas.

-View our digital biblio-exhibition of the complete works of Peter and Donna Thomas.

--Melissa, Special Collections Library Assistant

[tiffanyachings]

i love tlt because i get to be like yes i am aware this character has died not once but twice. now pray tell me what page of alecto is she gonna show up

[gothra]

I’ll never forget when I was arguing with a person in favor of total prison abolition and I asked them “what about violent offenders?” And they said “Well, in a world where prisons have been abolished, we’ll have leveled the playing field and everyone will have their basic needs met, and crime won’t be as much of an issue.” And then I was like “okay. But…no. Because rich people also rape and murder, so it isn’t just a poor person thing. So what will we do about that?” And I don’t think they answered me after that. I’m ashamed to say I continued to think that the problem was that I simply didn’t understand prison abolitionists enough and that their point was right in front of me, and it would click once I finally let myself understand it. It took me a long time to realize that if something is going to make sense, it needs to make sense. If you want to turn theory into Praxis (I’m using that word right don’t correct me I’ll vomit) everyone needs to be on board, which mean it all needs to click and it needs to click fast and fucking clear. You need to turn a complex idea into something both digestible and flexible enough to be expanded upon. Every time I ask a prison abolitionist what they actually intend to do about violent crime, I get directed to a summer reading list and a BreadTuber. It’s like a sleight-of-hand trick. Where’s the answer to my question. There it is. No wait, there it is. It’s under this cup. No it isn’t. “There’s theory that can explain this better than I can.” As if most theory isn’t just a collection of essays meant to be absorbed and discussed by academics, not the average skeptic. “Read this book.” And the book won’t even answer the question. The book tells you to go ask someone else. “Oh, watch this so-and-so, she totally explains it better than me.” Why can’t you explain it at all? Why did you even bring it up if you were going to point me to someone else to give me the basics that you should probably already know? Maybe I’m just one of those crazy people who thinks that some people need to be kept away from the public for everyone’s good. Maybe that just makes me insane. Maybe not believing that pervasive systemic misogyny could be solved with a UBI and a prayer circle makes me a bad guy. But it’s not like women’s safety is a priority anyway. It’s not like there is an objective claim to be made that re-releasing violent offenders or simply not locking them up is deadly.

[brokehorrorfan]

Stephen Graham Jones (My Heart is a Chainsaw, The Only Good Indians) will publish The Buffalo Hunter Hunter on Match 18 via Saga Press.

Set in the American west of 1912, the 496-page horror novel follows a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.

Pre-order The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.

[aroaceleovaldez]

Part 2 response to this ask / [this post]:

For recent books, I think that it's less of a consideration of the audience and more a reflection of the general state of the publishing world currently. Disney as a company (which owns the publishing house through which Rick's works are published) is also in a weird spot right now and that is probably also lending itself heavily to why recent franchise stuff is the way it is:

A.) The franchise is basically guaranteed free money. Disney does this a lot with their properties. Star Wars and Marvel are great examples. They don't need to make something good, they just need to make literally anything and because it's such a massive franchise it'll sell regardless.

B.) One of their main focuses right now is clearly that JKR is in a bad spot and if they can fully dethrone Harry Potter as The de-facto middle grade fantasy series (cause PJO is fully number 2) that's going to be really good for them. Because it basically guarantees that PJO will be even MORE free money. That's probably part of why we got the show when we did, because HP was trying to move forward with an HP show. (And the HP show was probably announced when it was to directly try to compete with PJO) (Also don't forget, Disney also owns the PJO movies now. They don't need to do better than the movies because they're competing with themselves. In fact, by constantly pitting the show against the movies, they're basically doubling advertising for themselves by drawing attention to both.)

B.5.) Another thing is that if they dethrone HP, that's gonna not only hurt Universal, but SEVERELY hurt Universal PARKS, which is the Disney Parks' number one competitor. And the Disney parks are also in a tight spot right now and they REALLY want breathing room. (You might have heard that the Disney parks are doing a TON of cuts and reshuffling right now.) They don't need to actively put PJO stuff in their parks (yet), because just by taking out HP they'd massively injure what is basically the number one draw to the Universal parks (which is probably also why the Universal parks is expanding right now, particularly in similar avenues to how the Disney parks are expanding, re: more fantasy-focused areas and an emphasis on animated/Dreamworks franchises - Universal needs to be able to continue competing with Disney in the absence of HP, and it seems like they're panicking a little bit - so they're leaning more on their Dreamworks properties as Dreamworks becomes a significant competitor to Disney re: animation and otherwise just copying Disney's homework and also making more fantasy-focused park areas right now) and thus Disney would totally kneecap their primary competitor. That would increase draw to their own parks in the absence of a significant competitor and also then if they add literally any PJO stuff to the parks (which would be INCREDIBLY easy just due to the nature of PJO - especially as they cycle out older and less profitable IPs from the parks) then they'd basically IMMEDIATELY get a massive draw from what used to be the HP crowds - because a lot of those casual crowds do not particularly care about HP itself. It's entirely just that HP is the number one mainstream middle grade fantasy series. If PJO takes that spot then they'll just go to wherever PJO stuff is, because they're a passive audience, not an active audience (though Disney is also VERY much known for it's active audience and being partially responsible for making fandom as a concept mainstream and directly advertising to that market - tying back to the first post, lmao).

C.) Disney is DESPERATELY trying to save their streaming service. That's why it's so emphasized that PJO TV is a Disney+ series. Disney is kind of in hot water with investors because streaming services all across the board are tanking and Disney+ is a big one that's going down. That's why they're pivoting so much towards streaming and throwing literally whatever Marvel and Star Wars at it, because they know those are massive franchises that practically support themselves and any kind of draw to the platform is good. PJO is part of that - it's a massive well-established mainstream franchise with a passionate audience. It's practically a default classroom choice for assigned reading and that's free advertising/publicity. They know they can make a mediocre PJO adaptation and throw it on Disney+ and it will have a draw and that's all they need. They just want more eyes on the platform period to try and prove that it's profitable. Not to mention how we just explicitly know the CoTG trilogy only exists as marketing for the show. The recent books are not meant to be a continuation of the story. The actual content within them is literally irrelevant. CoTG trilogy only needs to exist so that it can bring more attention to the show (which is why it's being grouped in with the first series, because search engine optimization). TSATS only needed to exist to get people to stop being mad at Rick/get distracted from his little PR disaster.

Disney has also been doing a lot of cost cutting with their media recently, particularly also relying on their own brand to make new stuff profitable because they're actively looking for cheap solutions instead of making new things. They don't do 2D animation anymore because 2D animation is more expensive because it's unionized. 3D animation has also since become unionized and yknow what they're doing now? Shifting to live action. Shifting to CGI, which is only starting to become unionized because it's newer. They're making one billion live action remakes of existing properties because those properties are profitable and a live action remake is cheap. They don't need to worry about making it good because press is press and they know it will sell regardless. They can cast some popular actors for some default attention and leave it at that (Hi LMM cameo). Even with their newer animated movies - Wish was entirely reliant on the fact that it was heavily drawn from other Disney properties and they used that as an active selling point. Meanwhile they're intentionally tanking other new projects (see: Strange World) because they want to be able to turn around and say projects like that aren't profitable and aren't worth making. (This isn't a conspiracy theory btw, they do intentionally flop certain movies. This is a regular thing Disney does and they've been doing it for a while.) This type of cost-cutting strategy is very clear with the PJO show - they have this absolutely massive budget that isn't reflected in the end project at all. It's extremely clear to anyone with anyone with eyes that they're majorly cutting corners all the time (blatantly avoiding even slightly more complex CGI cause that'd cost money, CGI that is shown is often extremely cheap looking or rushed, reusing assets for Olympus, speeding through certain scenes, very little done with costuming - ever notice how all the costuming in the show looks way too new? The costuming department is supposed to weather even just basic outfits to make them look worn-in and they don't seem to have done that. - poor lighting to obscure details because actually making it look good costs more, etc etc) and the show is poorly produced. They have the money to do it properly. Someone is pocketing that. Usually it's executives. This is not unusual behavior! I would not be surprised at all to hear if it was the case with PJO TV too!

Tl;dr: I don't think the quality of recent books going down is because they expect the books to have a shorter pop culture lifespan, i think it's just a combo of the current publishing industry overall dropping in quality and Disney being Disney and not caring beyond saving their own butts and making a quick buck.

[fght-ff-yr-dmns]

Vermis by Plastiboo

Reading this for a second time, instant classic.

Which side would you choose?

[narfin-frood]

What would the shorts be in your AU? I think it be a live demonstration of how someone (Mr meteor) is integrated into the hivemind and how it's "safe" and "the right thing to do"- basically propaganda. but things keep messing up

wander's not like. super public with the cult the way hater is with his empire in the show, so i don't know whether he'd be airing something like that across the galaxy. hater's got like. totally negative charisma, especially when he's being recorded, and yet he continues recording himself, and i think that's a trait meteor would still share with him. mr meteor is very much like metroman of megamind to me, also, where he quits his life of fame & glory to become a nobody, but he still has that streak of like. craving the kind of attention a rockstar gets as opposed to the superhero/king treatment.

so i imagine the shorts would be like. meteor's vlogs on his youtube or something. and he's starting a series called Inside Planet Yonder or whatever where he sets up a camera in an unassuming place and does little dances for the camera until he gets caught. like a prank show or something, but very benign and mildly annoying as opposed to antagonistic. this does require the shorts to take place before wander is redeemed, but honestly, the timeline in this au is so scrambled when you try to put it up against the show itself (which is already crammed into two very short seasons) anyway

[mantequillabooks]

Sooooo it’s going to take 2 years to film and edit 8 episodes for season 4…………………

It took 2 years for season 3 to come out and that was disappointing for multiple reasons. I’m not a Polin girl but even I was like “who’s the main couple again???!”

Why are there sooooo many different storyline’s taking place at the same time? Yes, it’s interesting to see other people and things going on but the main focus is always supposed to come back to the main couple and this season I had to keep reminding myself that Polin were the main couple cause so many other things were going on. Like, is this not a romance show at the end of the day? Yes, it’s set in the regency period and touches on so many different topics BUT is this not a romance show at the core? I mean it’s literally adapted from a book called ‘Romancing Mister Bridgerton’ but was there really much time for romance between them with all the drama/arguing taking over.

Now Benedict…….don’t get me wrong, I liked him in season 2 but they kept recycling the same old things with him, this man is just the community bike atp. Like doesn’t this man have anything else to do besides people?

Where is artist Benedict?? What happened to wanting to make it on his own without Anthony having to buy his way into things? Having his own passions and interests?

Anyways……

[fallloverfic]

I love singNsong again reminding people in Side Story that Dokja wanted other people to read TWSA (he wrote reviews and comments! It was his first wish), and he only stopped bothering because people harassed him for it. He didn't gate-keep the story. When he's avoiding talking to Sangah about it at the beginning of ORV, it's because he knows what happens when he tells people about the story, not because he's gate-keeping it from her. He notes he's not proud of his hobby (likely because he's been bullied all through his life, including for reading the thing he loves): he finds it embarrassing to talk about, and better respects her studying Spanish in her free time (learning another language is a generally accepted thing in society). He assumes she won't care or will look at him funny (or worse) for when she learns about the novel he's into.

Basically anyone writing "let's gatekeep ORV" posts because of the anime announcement or because they dislike the manhwa or some other weirdness, y'all are the villains in the scenario.

The literal climax of the story is about sharing ORV with as many people as possible. What story were y'all reading?

[ct-multifandom]

If I met award-winning murder mystery author Stuart Turton (the 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, the devil and the dark water, the last murder at the end of the world) in person, I would gift him a copy of the zero escape trilogy the way Matpat gave the pope undertale

[hanzajesthanza]

"the michael kandel translation of "the witcher" short story can't hurt you!!"

the michael kandel translation of "the witcher" short story:

[quatregats]

Well okay I can't find the post about the theories about who pushed Captain Sawyer (I think @hms-lurking-latinist was involved?? Do you know what post I'm talking about or did I make this up) so I can't remember what people's theories were and give them proper credit but I do think that show!Horatio definitely pushed him. I fully buy this theory. And I can't remember if this was an actual theory but I'd buy that it was Wellard in the books and Horatio was trying to cover for him (I need to reread Lieutenant though). Show!Horatio having pushed him and Archie covering for him fully knowing this fact is a very good dynamic, though.

[shannonpurdyjones]

Holy shiitttt go off Melville House

(screenshot from Melville House Books email to indy bookstores and booksellers)

^^^THIS is why we say support small indie presses.

Big companies are already caving left and right to this administration. Even from the bigger publishing houses we're seeing fewer political books in their catalogs for the next year, though they are standing up in other good ways.

But small presses like Melville House Books can take risks like this^^ in their commitment to our right to freely access information.

Support small presses, indy bookstores, and libraries. They are on the front lines of free press and free information these next four years.

[chussyracing]

thank you @presdestigatto for tagging me 😚

tagging @balaclavacharles @never-looked-so-good @ferrariprince16 @dobbiamo-capire @charlescherie @caffeinatedlovergirl @debushit and anyone who would like to do this - you are legally obliged to say i was the one to force you to do it

[sea-changed]

final third of 2024 in books

39. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk (trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones) 40. The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe, William I. Hitchcock [as my blog lately has attested I found this full of interesting info, though the writing and approach I thought was uneven. still a rec, however] 41. Yiddish: A Nation of Words, Miriam Weinstein 42. Jews, Germans, and Allies: Close Encounters in Occupied Germany, Atina Grossmann [a real standout I thought, I learned so much fascination information] 43. Yiddish: Biography of a Language, Jeffrey Shandler 44. The German-Jewish Cookbook: Recipes and History of a Cuisine, Gabrielle Rossmer Gropman and Sonya Gropman 45. Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery [reread] 46. Hangsaman, Shirley Jackson 47. Yiddish & English: The Story of Yiddish in America, Sol Steinmetz 48. Anne of Avonlea, LM Montgomery [possibly a reread but I don't think so, I didn't even remember some of what happened at the end of the first book] 49. The House of the Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne [charmed & delighted] 50. A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel, KJ Charles [it wasn't bad! when it comes to recent KJCs that's nearly a recommendation] 51. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë [reread, entirely or mostly; mortifyingly it had been long enough that I can't remember] 52. Colonial Living, Edwin Tunis 53. Conquerors' Peace: A Report to the American Stockholders, Bud Hutton and Andy Rooney 54. Trust, Hernán Díaz 55. Night Watch, Jayne Anne Phillips 56. All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown, Sydney Taylor [reread] 57. All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah, Emily Jenkins (illus. Paul O. Zelinsky) [was this a picture book? yes. but it was so delightful it's going on the list] 58. Golden Hill, Francis Spufford [annual reread, exactly as good and finely tuned and transporting as ever] 59. Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan 60. A History of Cookbooks: From Kitchen to Page over Seven Centuries, Henry Notaker [charmingly academic? I appreciated its dedication] 61. People Love Dead Jews, Dara Horn 62. Up Front, Bill Mauldin [thought this was great and fascinating, a definite WWII book club rec] 63. Anne of the Island, LM Montgomery [losing momentum with these somewhat, but I do think I'll continue them into the new year]

[squidinkarchives]

Wild Flowers of Palestine, Pressed Flower Specimen Book, 1895 Harvey B. Greene - 15 pages bound mat, illustrated. Similar edition for viewing avaliable at ecommons from the University of Dayton

Source: Lone Jack, MO Soulis Auctions